Santa Clarita Gets Time to Assess General Plan

Los Angeles County planning officials have agreed to delay the completion of a new general plan for the Santa Clarita Valley to give the city of Santa Clarita time to assess and comment on the document that would guide development in the unincorporated part of the valley for the next 20 years.

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission had scheduled a hearing for Aug. 31 on a draft of the new plan. But at the urging of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the hearing has been rescheduled for January.

In an Aug. 8 letter to the commission, Antonovich requested the delay “in the spirit of intergovernmental cooperation.” Santa Clarita officials had asked Antonovich to request the delay because the young city is developing its own general plan for almost the same area under study by the county.

Santa Clarita is at least three months behind the county in drafting a plan of its own, City Manager George Caravalho said Monday. The four-month delay will give Santa Clarita officials more time to better analyze the proposed county plan, he said.

The city is particularly concerned about how the county will review 45 pending amendments--applications for building--to the present general plan, Caravalho said. Those proposed amendments, submitted by developers, call for building more than 30,000 houses, condominiums and apartments in the valley.

The delay pleased Santa Clarita but worried developers, including Newhall Land & Farming Co., the largest builder in the valley. Gloria Glenn, a Newhall Land vice president, said the decision means more delay in processing some requests.